Red Ghost

Red Ghost
Cover art for Fantastic Four: Foes #5. Art by Jim Cheung.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Fantastic Four Vol.1 #13 (April 1963)
Created by	Stan Lee (writer) Jack Kirby (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Ivan Kragoff
Team affiliations	Intelligencia
Partnerships	Attuma
Abilities	Scientific genius Expert radiologist Intangibility Invisibility Air-walking Use of devices and weapons

The Red Ghost (Ivan Kragoff) and his Super-Apes (Mikhlo/Михло, Igor/Игорь, and Peotr/Пётр) are a group of fictional supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The characters started their career fighting the Fantastic Four, before confronting other Marvel heroes such as Iron Man and Spider-Man.

Red Ghost and his Super-Apes were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Fantastic Four #13 (April, 1963) and #29 (August, 1964).

Ivan Kragoff was born in Leningrad, in what was at the time the Soviet Union. Before becoming the Red Ghost, Ivan was a Soviet scientist bent on beating the Americans to the moon and claiming it for the Communist empire. He assembled a crew of three trained primates — Mikhlo the Gorilla, Igor the Baboon, and Peotr the Orangutan — which he subjected to specialized training regimens of his own design, then took off on his lunar rocket trip on behalf of the USSR, while on the very next panel, the Fantastic Four were aiming their own rocket for the same destination.

Kragoff knew enough of the Fantastic Four's history, and he purposefully designed his rocket in such a way that he and his crew would be heavily exposed to the cosmic rays that would, he expected, give them superpowers. This was successful: Kragoff gained the ability to become as intangible and invisible as a "ghost", Mikhlo became superhumanly strong and durable, Igor gained the ability to shapeshift and could transform into nearly anything, and Peotr gained the ability to control either gravity (like Graviton) or magnetism (like Magneto) (accounts vary by writer). They landed on the Blue Area of the Moon.